Almost a year into his term, President Donald Trump promised to release all of the files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Obviously, that was a promise he didn’t keep.
Now, former Trump consultant and Fox News personality Judge Andrew Napolitano said the president had good reason for not following through with his commitment.
“After strict consultation with [Chief of Staff] General [John] Kelly, the CIA and other Agencies, I will be releasing ALL files other than the names and address of any mentioned person who is still living,” Trump posted to Twitter on Oct. 28, 2017.
“I am doing this of reasons of full disclosure, transparency and in order to put any and all conspiracy theories to rest,” he explained.
#JFKFiles pic.twitter.com/AnPBSJFh3J
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 28, 2017
At about the same time, however, Reuters reported: “U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the unveiling of 2,800 documents related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy but yielded to pressure from the FBI and CIA to block the release of other records to be reviewed further.”
Now, in a Wednesday appearance on “The Jim Hoft Show,” Napolitano has provided a glimpse into the president’s thinking on the subject.
“I’ll tell you a story about JFK,” Napolitano said, according to a partial transcript of the show. “So Trump, as you know, I was privledged [sic] to be consulted by him many, many times during his Presidency on the phone. He twice considered me for the Supreme Court, another story for another time.
“But in one of our interviews, he said to me, don’t forget, I’m going to release the JFK files. I said, ‘I’m not going to forget it Mr. President, on the contrary, I’m going to remind you.'”
However, later in the term, the president’s thinking about releasing “all” the documents had obviously changed.
“The last conversation we had while he was in the White House, which is now about two weeks or 10 days before Joe Biden is being inaugurated, I reminded him of this,” Napolitano said.
“He said to me, ‘Yes, you’re quite correct Judge I did say that, but, if you saw what I saw, you wouldn’t release it either. Some day when we’re not on a phone call with 15 other people listening (meaning people in the White House), I’ll tell you what I saw,” Napolitano explained.
The question, of course, remains: What, exactly, changed the president’s mind. Napolitano said he didn’t know, but offered some insight into the character of the information Trump apparently didn’t become privy to until after his “strict consultation with General Kelly, the CIA and other Agencies.”
“Now what the hell did he see, … I don’t know,” Napolitano said, according to the transcript. “It must have terrified him and he’s one of the strongest character’s I ever known in my life and suddenly he became afraid to follow through on a promise he made, not just to me, but the American public several times.
“It had to be the CIA,” the judge theorized.
President Joe Biden released thousands of additional documents related to the assassination in 2021 and 2022, with another batch possibly to be released in the first half of this year, according to CNN. However, it is likely that even after that, not every document will be released, if only to continue to protect CIA and FBI methods and sources of information still extant.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
